12/31/2010 12:50:00 AM

December 30, 2010

Contrary to popular belief, it never did. I just stopped putting the posts on Facebook. Amid all the criticism such as:

No one will read it.

People only check Facebook, they will only read it if you tag them.

It's partially true. I mean, my main demographic I was targeted was predominately idiotic teens that were in the false belief that Facebook was the only website in existence. Now, I'm not saying you yourself are one of those unintelligent, Facebook-aholics, but I am saying that Facebook did in fact intoxicate you.

We'll save that for another rant about Facebook one of these days.

To veer back on topic, it was nearly a year ago when Tyler Talk went from Facebook-only, to Facebook and WordPress, to WordPress only. Subsequent events included going to Blogger and now Tumblr. Sadly, Tumblr's no longer hip (in my evident quest to be as indie as possible, soccer for starters).

Anyways. the point of this whole section is simple. There have been nearly hundreds of Tyler Talk blog posts. Actual blog posts. Kind of like to differentiate Facebook notes and blog posts. For starters, one will actually read a Facebook note throughly. One will skim a blog, unless there's a video...then they'll watch it. Unless it's a vlog. Don't count on viewers watching more than 25 seconds. Unless of course, you're Julian Rosen...where you can capture the attention of viewers for 20 minutes. That, my friend, is a skill I'll never be able to accomplish, unless it's with sheer aggression. I'm not exactly the aggressive type when it comes to non-soccer-related topics.

December 28, 2010

Remember when I used to do those practically-ancient Tyler Talk blog posts? It was splendid times, times where I had oodles of time lying around to slap together very well-structured Facebook notes that were...for whatever reason (I still wonder) received attention.

Perhaps it was because I tagged literally dozens of people.

Actually, that's most likely why.

And, as you could imagine, I was scrolling through some "archived" Tyler Talk's, and I had that incredibly deep thought to myself that magnificent question: "why not do another one?! Just for the sake of it!"

Here we are, another Facebook note, another little 'blog post' as you may, so lets see where it goes.

Tyler Talk Never Really Died...

Contrary to popular belief, it never did. I just stopped putting the posts on Facebook. Amid all the criticism such as:

No one will read it.

People only check Facebook, they will only read it if you tag them.

It's partially true. I mean, my main demographic I was targeted was predominately idiotic teens that were in the false belief that Facebook was the only website in existence. Now, I'm not saying you yourself are one of those unintelligent, Facebook-aholics, but I am saying that Facebook did in fact intoxicate you.

We'll save that for another rant about Facebook one of these days.

To veer back on topic, it was nearly a year ago when Tyler Talk went from Facebook-only, to Facebook and WordPress, to WordPress only. Subsequent events included going to Blogger and now Tumblr. Sadly, Tumblr's no longer hip (in my evident quest to be as indie as possible, soccer for starters).

Anyways, the point of this whole section is simple. There have been nearly hundreds of Tyler Talk blog posts. Actual blog posts. Kind of like to differentiate Facebook notes and blog posts. For starters, one will actually read a Facebook note throughly. One will skim a blog, unless there's a video...then they'll watch it. Unless it's a vlog. Don't count on viewers watching more than 25 seconds. Unless of course, you're Julian Rosen...where you can capture the attention of viewers for 20 minutes. That, my friend, is a skill I'll never be able to accomplish, unless it's with sheer aggression. I'm not exactly the aggressive type when it comes to non-soccer-related topics.

This is not a gimmick to get people to read the Blogger and Tumblr posts. Those blog posts are extremely short and are not along the style of what Tyler Talk was.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

I pray you all pick up on the satire there, because if you don't, it makes me look like a narcissistic asshole, and I'm rather self-conscience to make sure none of you ever have that impression on me.

You have heard every amount of praise Kanye's latest album has received, and righteously deserved, yet lets stop talking about how spectacular, how iconic this gem of the 21st century is.

Lets focus on what's most important: how it affected me.

In a nutshell, the album really got me into rap music.

If you care to read more, I'll further detail it. If you've had enough, there's a lovely rant about me chewing out the American sports structure. That ought to dazzle you.

American sports suck...their format, at least

Before I get into explaining why the format of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL (since I like soccer, I will include MLS) suck, lets take a moment to think about everyone's favorite debate topic: politics.

Since we're somewhat of a southern state, there's many right-wing thinkers that are reading this. You all loathe communism. Who doesn't? It's the dead-end to society, right?! Capitalism is the only true way to conduct things, and it's AMURICAN! Yes, it is though. Very Amurican.

Yet...our sports leagues, a pastime of the United States, is the most communist structure in the sporting world...literally the whole. Sporting. World.

How is it, you might ask? Well, first and foremost, the big five sports leagues in the United States operate on a closed-entity franchise structure. The leagues are plagued with parity, salary caps, allocation money, draft picks, rewards for doing bad, and most noticeably?! The same. Fucking. Teams. Year. After. Year. After. Year.

After year...

After year...

There's no freedom nor capitalism in the sports world in America. The league rules over its clubs with an iron fist. It calls its clubs "franchises" and the local cities "markets". They limit how much money each club can spend, a make sure every club has a fair chance in making a run to the playoffs (bleh!).

Okay sure, in most of the leagues, there are dominate teams, but yet...there are very weak clubs. But the thing is...every season after season, they are still in the same league. They are never relegated.

What's relegation?

It's simply when you move the crappy teams down to a lower tier, and move the stronger teams from the lower tier up.

I'm lost Tyler.

Think baseball. The Orioles, the Marines, Nationals and Pirates all suck...really, really, bad.

Yet, the still play MLB baseball every single season.

Imagine though, instead of getting that nice first draft pick...they go down to AAA, likewise the best AAA baseball clubs come up to MLB!

There you have it! Promotion and relegation. Replacing the worst teams with the best of a lower division each and every season. It's something that is done in literally every nation in the World except the United States. Even in those evil communist nations of Russia and China!

For a nation that sure loves capitalism as much as it loves gasoline...we have quite a communist sports system, that causes boring games with no truly superb team, and a bunch of mediocre teams that win by sheer luck...not skill.

And on to the playoffs

If the closed-franchise system wasn't bad enough, the playoffs are worse. I don't see how you can determine who the league champion is by determining how one team does in a short post-season tournament spanning a month, as opposed to awarding the champion to the team that works their ass off and is consistent for nearly five to six months.

God forbid that team earns the league title. But, in my humble opinion, the true league champion of the NFL, NBA, etc. is not the team that walks away with the Super Bowl, or the Stanley Cup. Not at all.

It's the team that has the best regular season record. The President's Trophy, the Supporters' Shield. That's your true champion, the one who played their best for months, not that lucky team that had a hot streak. The playoffs erase league credibility and make any team have the false impression they can be a champion.

And again, nearly every sporting league in the World except the U.S. does not have playoffs, and crows the team with the best regular season record their league champion.

Back to the communism talk...giving every team a chance for that championship title....doesn't seem AMURICAN....

byTyler Walter

in

12/28/2010 04:12:00 PM

December 23, 2010

Not to Kanye West's extremity from two year's back, but recent conversation has triggered similar thoughts. Problem being, I'm not sure if I'm showing enough concern, or if it's the right mentality if they do not have enough interest.

Who knows.

byTyler Walter

in

12/23/2010 12:15:00 AM

December 17, 2010

Honestly, I'm not sure why I bothered to do this Power Rankings list for how good off-season squads are, but I suppose it's a great way to make my predictions come 2011...less embarrassing. Still about a month until the draft, but the way offseason transactions have occurred, teams could dramatically change in the blink of an eye.

byTyler Walter

in

12/16/2010 08:38:00 PM

December 13, 2010

As we all know, or should know, predicting Major League Soccer's outcome is essentially picking March Madness. You're better off drawing names out of a hat or having someone pick the results that is unknowing of the league's existence.

Looking at my predictions, they actually were not too bad; perhaps they were mediocre. I predicted the Western Conference correctly, for the most part (if you count my predictions for the playoffs).

Eastern Conference? Different story. Completely different story. Don't underestimate Hans Backe's ability to overhaul a club, that's a fact. So without further due, let's get into the results vs. predictions.

12/13/2010 05:25:00 PM

December 04, 2010

Ever since FIFA award Qatar the right to host the 2022 World Cup, the nation has made the inevitable leap from grief to pointing the finger and creating USSF guilt by association.

Soccer purists have seen this as a golden opportunity to–once again–point out the flaws of Major League Soccer, claiming it could have hurt even ruined the United States' chance to bring the World Cup back across the Atlantic.

Breaking it down, the only eminent flaws with American soccer (that FIFA has pointed out) have been the ways MLS is structured and how it consistently refuses to abide to FIFA's guidelines.